Dell’s Precision 3240 Compact (starts at $839; $3,047 as tested) is a mini desktop workstation for space-conscious professionals. About the size of a thick hardcover book, it features up to a 10-core Intel Xeon processor and Nvidia Quadro RTX-class graphics for performance that can rival that of larger towers. It also offers good end-user serviceability, VESA mounting options, and a standard three-year warranty. It’s an excellent, if not necessarily superior, alternative to HP’s Z2 Mini G5. You’ll get better value out of full-size desktop workstation towers, to be sure, but this model and HP’s Mini effort trade blows in the wee-workstation space.
Pushing the Limits of the Footprint
At just 7.4 by 2.8 by 7 inches (HWD), the Precision 3240 Compact is Dell’s smallest desktop workstation. It takes up about as much space as a mousepad when oriented horizontally and even less sitting vertically, as shown here.
Its footprint can be eliminated with Dell’s VESA mounting options, which allow the Precision 3240 Compact to piggyback behind a monitor or sit under a desk. Its laptop-style external power brick (rated for 240 watts in my configuration) somewhat defeats its tiny footprint, but it’s unavoidable—there is no room inside the chassis for a normal power supply—and Dell offers a sleeve mount that can minimize the power brick’s footprint too. Other available accessories include a cable cover (a grate that fits to the back of the chassis to keep cables contained) and a dust filter for commercial environments.
The Precision 3240 Compact is visually professional, with no eye-catching features. Other than the plastic front and left-side panels, the chassis is metal. The front-panel connectivity includes a headset jack, audio line-in/line-out, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port with PowerShare. The latter can be used to charge devices when the Precision 3240 Compact is turned off.
The backside quartet of USB-A ports is split between version 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the bottom and version 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ports up top. The power adapter connects at the lower left corner. Thunderbolt 3, not present on my unit, is available via an add-in card, though it requires sacrificing the dedicated graphics card.
Networking comes from an Ethernet jack and optional wireless. The Intel AX201 card in my unit supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. Its stubby 3-inch antenna, not connected in the photos, screws in next to the Ethernet jack.
This little workstation can support up to seven monitors depending on its configuration—one more than the HP Z2 Mini G5 can do. My review unit connects with six via two full-size DisplayPort connectors on the chassis and four mini-DisplayPort connectors on its Quadro RTX 3000 graphics card. To support a seventh monitor, you’ll need to get the optional extra port—your choice of VGA, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, or USB-C (supporting DisplayPort over USB-C). It would go in the cutout just above the Ethernet jack.
Simple to Upgrade
Getting inside the Precision 3240 Compact is puzzling the first time you try to crack the case. After you undo the thumb screw at the rear and slide the left plastic panel off to the rear, the top of the chassis and front panel slide forward as one piece to reveal an intricately tight interior.
The 75-watt Quadro RTX 3000 is visible at the top of this photo. The black heatshield covers the CPU, which in this unit is an 80-watt 10-core Xeon W-1290 (3.2GHz, up to 5.2GHz Turbo Boost). They are the most potent components available in the Precision 3240 Compact.
Pinch the heatshield’s release levers to take it off for cleaning and access to the two laptop-style DIMM slots, populated here by a pair of 16GB DDR4-2933 modules (32GB total). Up to 64GB of memory can be installed via two 32GB DIMMs. Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory is supported with certain CPU choices, including my unit’s Xeon, though the memory in my unit is non-ECC. ECC would only be beneficial for specialized scenarios. (Again, see our desktop workstations guide for more on that.)
The M.2 slot for the wireless card is just visible under the graphics card in the photo below. The two M.2 Type-2280 slots for SSDs are behind it, though they’re not visible. The graphics card must be removed to access them.
If the Precision 3240 Compact is configured without a dedicated graphics card, the case can also hold a 2.5-inch storage drive. Overall, this workstation offers good upgrade potential for such a small body.
For peripherals, my review unit’s price included Dell’s $34 KM636 wireless keyboard and mouse setup. Both lack frills but are entirely practical, especially for the price.
Punching Above Its Weight
The $3,047 Precision 3240 Compact I’m testing is fully optioned with a 10-core Xeon W-1290 processor and a 6GB Quadro RTX 3000 GPU. It also features 32GB of DDR4-2933 dual-channel memory (non-ECC) and a 1TB NVMe storage drive. The Xeon chip requires a Windows 10 Pro for Workstations license.
Dell backs the system with a standard three-year onsite warranty, and it’s also worth noting that the Precision 3240 Compact carries Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certifications, an important buying factor if your work and the software involved requires them. Dell maintains a list of the certifications on its Precision minisite.
HP’s Z2 Mini G5 goes punt for punt with the Precision 3240 Compact in component choices, ISV certifications, and standard warranty. Though HP lists the Quadro RTX 3000 as an option, it wasn’t available in its configurator when I wrote this review. The Z2 Mini G5 is $2,407 with its next most powerful choice, a 4GB Quadro T1000. Overall, the Dell is fairly priced for what’s inside given the form factor, though more performance can be had in a larger tower for similar money.
Another small workstation option is the Lenovo ThinkStation P340 Tiny, though it tops out with 35-watt CPUs and entry-level Quadro P1000 graphics. With that card and a 10-core Core i9-10900T, it costs $2,067.
Storage, Media, and CPU Tests
The Precision 3240 Compact kept its cool throughout my testing. The fans for its processor and graphics card were audible but civilized even under heavy use. It’s suitable for a quiet office environment. (See more about how we test desktop PCs.)
For our benchmark tests, I compared the Precision 3240 against several workstations. The Xeon-equipped Dell Precision 5820 (2019) and Lenovo ThinkStation P330 are both larger towers. The small-form-factor Corsair One Pro i200 falls between them and the Precision 3240, size-wise.
Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, a holistic performance suite that simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a Storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the system’s storage subsystem. (Missing red and blue bars below indicate that the system in question conflicted with one test or the other, which happens more often with desktop workstations than other PC types.)
The Precision 3240 Compact scored well in both tests, especially PCMark 10, where it soared past our informal 4,000-point line for high-performance PCs. (The Dell didn’t complete that test, which sometimes happens with unusual or rarely-seen hardware.)
Its 10-core Xeon also did great in our CPU benchmarks. Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image. In our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-minute 4K video down to 1080p.
The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the totals. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
Just 119 seconds is an excellent time in this test for any size PC. The Precision 3240 Compact could easily be used as a photo editing platform.
Graphics Tests
Though gaming isn’t a focus for the Precision 3240 Compact, the following benchmarks provide good GPU performance insight. We use UL’s 3DMark Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs) tests, both DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.’s Superposition uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.
The Precision 3240 Compact’s Quadro RTX 3000 is about as fast as a laptop-grade GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, a competent card for 1080p gaming. It’s much faster than the ThinkStation’s anemic Quadro P620 and the Z2 Mini G5’s Quadro T2000. For more complex 3D work, the Quadro RTX 3000 is worth the extra dosh.
Workstation Tests
Workstation-specific tests start with POV-Ray 3.7 for CPU assessment. This test uses ray tracing to render a three-dimensional image. (Note that it doesn’t use the ray tracing features of Nvidia’s RTX-class GPUs; this is purely CPU-focused.)
The Precision 3240 Compact continued to impress with its 10-core Xeon. It was just a few seconds behind the Corsair and its 14-core Core X-series chip.
Our last and most workstation-savvy benchmark is SPECviewperf 13, which renders and rotates wireframe models using real-world viewsets from popular ISV apps.
Impressively, the Precision 3240 Compact nipped the heels of the Quadro RTX 4000-powered Dell. It also dominated the Corsair in the SolidWorks viewset, though the victory was purely a function of its OpenGL-optimized Quadro drivers.
A Small But Mighty Xeon Workstation
The Precision 3240 Compact crams responsive performance and practicality into a commendably small package. Our 10-core Xeon and Quadro RTX test unit even kept up with larger towers in some benchmarks despite being a fraction of their size. Its external power adapter is a turnoff, but Dell offers VESA mounting options to keep the whole setup out of sight. A long standard warranty and good serviceability make it a sensible investment. Look to it as a highly credible alternative to HP’s Z2 Mini G5. It earns a general recommendation for a compact workstation tower.
